Publicis acquires Sapient for $3.7 billion

The French advertising juggernaut Publicis Groupe announced on Monday taht it had agreed to acqurie Sapient, a Boston’s marketing and consulting company, for $3.7 Billion.

Publicis, with headquarters in Paris, will pay $25 a share for Sapient, its 44 percent premium above Friday closing price, said companies in statement.

This deal comes after unsuccessful merger Publicis with Omnicom, valued at $35 billion, which would have created the largest advertising agency in the world. These two companes but after legal and tax complications, as well as differences in culture had to disperse.

Sapient, founded in 1990 and traded in Nasdaq, is occupied with providing top corporations with consulting and support services, including many areas of technology, retail, finance, energy and goverment. Sapient is focusing “exclusively on digital transformation and the dynamics of an always-on world across marketing, omni-channel commerce, consulting and technology.”

Marcus Lévy, the chairman and CEO of Publicis, annotated Sapient as ” crown jewel, a one-of-a-kind company born in the technology space with strentghts in marketing, communications, consulting and omni-channel commerce.”

CEO of Publicis said the deal would help Publicis to reach its goal of getting 50 percent of its revenue from the digital realm for 3 years by company’s 2018 plan and would offer :new and exciting opportunities to our talents.”

Mr. Lévy announced one month ago he expected to retire in the spring of 2017. His successor wasn’t announced yet.

The deal is subjetct to regulatory approval in USA and antitrust clearances in Germany and expected to close before March.

Mr. Stakebay says:

This deal helps Publicis makes bigger player on digital market to competition against Internet giants like Google and Facebook. The intrnet companies’ stress on the information of consumers’ brosing habits in the growing online ad market because of increasing spending for spending on advertisment spaces.